in millions, champagne flowed freely all
over Melbourne in gallons, everyone was intoxicated with joy and soused
themselves and their friends in champagne to wash down success. Vehicles
rushed speculators through the streets, trains whisked them to the land
free, luncheons free awaited all at every turn, fortunes at every step.
Melbourne was mad drunk--lost!

Buildings--comfortable, sensible buildings--were pulled down and "sky
scrapers" and mansions were erected in their places. Bridges, good for a
hundred years to come, were pulled down and millions spent in erecting
in place of the old ones others not more serviceable or of more use.
Huge docks, not wanted, were built at fabulous outlays--all these
buildings stand as monuments of Melbourne's Madness.

The extraordinary good spirits of the Melbournites is a healthy sign.
Those who not only lost all their money invested, chagrined by their
folly and left with liabilities that will cripple them for life, smile
and bear their fall right cheerily.

Some of these notes made by me whilst seeing the Kangarooists at home
"in a hurry" may not be received in the proper spirit. All new countries
are sensitive, and resent truths coming from a stranger, while at the
same time their home critics, though far more severe, are tolerated and
unchallenged. Now I met one of the most prominent Australians, a man of
the world, a leading legal light and a Member of Parliament. It was in
the Legislative Chamber I had a conversation with him on matters
Australian. He led off: "This bit of a place here (Sydney), with a
population less than that of a second-class provincial town in England,
has in it people with more cheek than would be found in the capitals of
London, Paris and St. Petersburg rolled into one. Why, these people have
some ingrained vain idea that everything and everybody connected with
them are the most important things and the most important people in the
world. Small-minded people in a large country--that is what they are--a
country the size of Europe with a population less than that of London
with the intellect of a country village. That is Australia."

[Illustration: I AM INVITED TO PRESENT MYSELF.]

"And divided among themselves. Do you believe in Federation?"

This conversation took place in June, 1897, and three years after,
Australian Federation had become a reality. It is therefore interesting
to repeat the opinion of this important Australian on Federation,
exac